Meze

Meze Audio are based in Baia Mare, in the north of Romania, and produce some of the more carefully made headphones in serious circulation. The company was founded by Antonio Meze in 2011, originally as a design exercise — a single pair of headphones in machined wood and metal, made the way the founder thought a headphone ought to look and feel — and has, over a decade, grown into one of the more respected names in the high-end headphone field.

The 99 Classics and 99 Neo are the entry to the catalogue: closed-back, ear-pad-suspended over-ears in walnut or maple, that punch noticeably above their price for build quality and tonal honesty. The 109 PRO sits a tier above.

The flagship line is built around the Rinaro isodynamic planar magnetic driver — one of the more carefully engineered transducers in current production, made by a partner company in Ukraine. The Empyrean was the first commercial headphone to use it. The Empyrean II is the current generation. Above that, the Elite is the no-compromise statement — a planar magnetic headphone whose only meaningful peer is twice the price.

The Liric, a closed-back planar built around a smaller variant of the Rinaro driver, is the headphone for the listener who wants the Meze house sound in a quieter, more portable form.

A Meze headphone is, in the hand, immediately recognisable as a piece of careful manufacture. The materials are good. The finishing is good. The fit is good. The result, in any of the listening positions where a headphone matters, is the same. It is good.